Mitered Borders
 

Is there a rule of thumb about how much extra length to leave on the border strip if you want to miter the corner? All the tutorials just say 'be sure to leave enough extra fabric.' I'm wondering if there is a rule of some kind like 'leave twice the width of your border plus 2 inches or something? This is a sad confession, but I have been quilting for about 30 years and have only mitered one border on a table runner. That's because a friend gave up on it and gifted her ufo to me! I just took her mess apart and re-stitched it. I'm not afraid of the angle just don't know the right amount of fabric to leave. She had the extra length and wasted a lot of fabric. I'm thinking there must be a rule out there somewhere!

When I measure for the mitered corner - I lay the border strip wrong side down, move it towards the left side of the quilt and then fold the end up -so it makes a 45 degree angle. I usually give it an inch 'tail'. that always works for me, so I don't have many inches left over. I know some say to mark the strip in the middle, and place that in the middle of the quilt - that wastes a lot of border fabric IMHO. I have even used my method when doing two colors in a border strip. I use mitered corners on all of my projects now, unless I am doing a corner stone.

Is has to be more than the width of your border.

As others have said -- should be the length of the side + width of your border, but always nice to add an extra 1/2-1" and trim rather than coming up short.

You'll need the width of your border on both ends so 2 times the width was accurate. I always add about an inch or so "just to make sure..."

Linda in MO

For each side you need to add the width of the border at a minimum. I always add a few inches extra.

If you want to miter multiple borders, you need to sew the strips together BEFORE sewing them on. (That's a lesson I had to learn the hard way.)

I think I've got it... L + (bw x 2) + 3= cut size. If my length is 50" and I'm adding a 4" border (cut 4.5") I need to add 50 + 9 + 3 = 62" cut size. Is 3" extra good?
MadQuilter When I was hunting this info on youtube none said how much tail to leave but one did show to sew multiple borders together before sewing them to the quilt. Good point!
Thanks everyone for your help. If my math is wrong please let me know.

Your method works well for me too Linda.

"Calculators at Lily Street Quilts" is great.